Last week, we discussed in detail the history of the Amalekites. And I hope that you’ve been able to see the generational consequences of a person and a group of people that are ok with the devil and his agenda and also haters of God.
Today we’ll discuss the subject of iniquity, which is the spiritual mechanism by which these things are passed down from parents to children.
Sozo vs Soteria
We’ve touched on this briefly last year when we were talking about soteria salvation. As a refresher, let’s take a look again at Romans 10:9-10.
“Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved [sozo]. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved [soteria].” Romans 10:9-10 (ESV)
Sozo is the salvation that only God does, made possible by the work of Jesus on the cross, mentioned in Romans 10:9. This is our conversion experience. This is the “by grace through faith you have been saved (or sozo)” (Ephesians 2:8-9).
But in Romans 10:10, this word for saved is not sozo. The word for saved is ‘soteria.’ One of the definitions for this word is, “deliverance from the molestation of enemies.” It also means “to be rescued and to be safe.”
Have you heard the verse, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling”? Have you wondered why we are working out salvation if we have been saved by grace through faith? It’s because these are two different things. Working out our own salvation is ‘soteria’ salvation while saved by grace through faith from Ephesians 2:8-9 is ‘sozo’ salvation.
You can think of ‘sozo’ salvation as something God does in us that we are recipients of, and ‘soteria’ salvation as something we partner with God to do in us, putting forth the necessary work to get it done. It does take work.
“Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation [soteria] with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” Philippians 2:12-13 (ESV)
So not only does Jesus desire to heal us in every way possible (‘sozo’ salvation), but he wants to rescue us from being molested by our enemies (‘soteria’ salvation).
How does this happen? Much of this is getting rid of iniquity. Jesus died and paid for all of our sins, transgressions and iniquity, AND we must work with Him to apply this all through our lives and even into our own ancestry.
Sin, Transgression and Iniquity Review
Also, as a review, let’s define sin, transgression and iniquity. You see them show up in verses like this one:
“Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place.” Daniel 9:24 (ESV)
Sin is defined as missing the mark, like telling a lie. To speak a lie is to sin. You’ve missed the mark. Since Jesus is Truth itself, to speak a lie is to deny the Truth of Jesus’ character and who He is. This is sin. It’s bad news.
Transgression is a pattern of sin, or a prolonged habit of sinning. In this example, someone who tells a lie but then continues the string of lies to try to fix or cover over the first lie, and who ends up speaking hundreds of lies. This is transgression, a pattern of sinning over time.
Iniquity is when the transgression turns into an identity. It’s when the person telling lies decides to just stop fighting it. They give into it. The thinking goes, “I can’t help but lie. It’s just who I am. I am a liar; I’ll always be a liar, and nothing can help me become anything different. Once a liar, always a liar. Once a sinner, always a sinner. Why does God blame me for this? It’s just the way I am.”
Now, again, some might see these all in one bucket called sin. And they may say something like, “Hey Brett, it’s all just sin, and Jesus died to set us free from this. That should be good enough for you. This is God’s domain and we just can’t know or understand this stuff.”
And they try to simplify what Jesus did into something that turns into a half truth, a reduced gospel.
Things of the Spirit are Spiritually Discerned
But remember one of the core verses of this entire series of Mysteries of the Bible applies to this topic of iniquity:
“The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” 1 Corinthians 2:14 (ESV)
Remember, spiritual things are discerned through the Spirit. The word ‘discerned’ means a ‘forensic investigation,’ so we are to thoroughly investigate spiritual things by the power of the Holy Spirit within the guardrails of Jesus Christ, who is the Living Word.
We are going to pause here. Next week we will look further into the principle of iniquity, and how to completely separate ourselves from iniquity. Is this even possible? I hope you have a blessed week.
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